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Noah Berz

FEATURES 4/16/24 11:07pm

Peggy Whitson breaks the glass ceiling, lands among the stars

By Noah Berz

Peggy Whitson has spent more time in space than any other American. She was the first female, nonmilitary Chief of the Astronaut Office for NASA and the first woman commander of the International Space Station, but despite all her success, Whitson denies any claims of special talent or giftedness. Above all else, she said, hard work and perseverance brought her to the top. 

A&E 4/9/24 11:49pm

Museum fellows talk art, academia and experiential learning

By Noah Berz

On Monday mornings at 8 a.m., Ella Langridge walks upstairs to her desk at the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens and gets to work, sifting through photocopies of Americana and decorative arts with pasts unknown. Langridge’s job, as this year’s Jameson Fellow for American Painting & Decorative Arts, is to research these artifacts, uncover their histories and communicate their uniquely American stories to the collection’s thousands of annual visitors. 

FEATURES 4/9/24 11:37pm

Rice professors tackle teaching, tenure

By Noah Berz

Jamie Catanese stands outside the Anderson Biological Laboratories with his students as they present research posters for his BIOS 211 class. With his hands down at his sides, he snaps his fingers and throws out questions to familiar students passing by. One student comes to him with an empty major declaration form, and he fills it out without hesitation, laughing and cracking jokes as he signs his name. 

FEATURES 3/26/24 10:49pm

Colette Nicolaou on love, learning and lecture

By Noah Berz

In 2011, Colette Nicolaou left her home in Los Angeles — along with her family, her friends and a job she loved — and followed a boy to Houston. She knew no one and her psychologist license wasn’t valid in Texas. She did it for love, Nicolaou said. Soon after her arrival in Texas, she married her now-husband.  

FEATURES 3/5/24 10:07pm

Isabella Avilez pieces together a puzzling world

By Noah Berz

Isabella Avilez is a problem solver. As co-president of Rice Escape, she got the club back on its feet after it was felled by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a mechanical engineering major with a passion for renewable energy, she attempts to find ways to power the world’s technologies while leaving space for a sustainable future. And as a friend, she’s an expert at turning a rough week into a pleasant smile.

FEATURES 2/13/24 10:03pm

Owls celebrate all kinds of love

By Noah Berz

If you’re like me and get most of your valentines from your mom, then you know Valentine’s Day isn’t always about romance. From anonymous singing-valentines to tacos to a match-making Crush Party, student organizations and clubs across campus are pulling out all the stops to put on a diverse array of Valentine’s Day celebrations. According to Rice PRIDE co-president Cole Holladay, that’s why the organization started Pal-Grams, valentines for loved ones of any kind.

FEATURES 11/1/23 12:50am

CAAAS gets a makeover

By Noah Berz

One does not have to go further than Rice’s own website to learn about its 1891 charter, which originally designated the school for “the instruction and improvement of the white inhabitants of the City of Houston and State of Texas.” More than 100 years later, Rice has seen a surge in the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and Black scholarship, especially in the Center for African and African American Studies.

OPINION 11/1/23 12:38am

Speak out against antisemitism

By Noah Berz

Tuesday, Oct. 24, 6 p.m.: Dozens of Rice students and community members gather in the Graduate Student Bubble for an anti-war teach-in because the Basker Institute has plans to celebrate former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger, Hillary Clinton and James Baker at an upcoming gala. The flyer for the event calls the former secretaries “architects of war and imperialism”; intrigued, I, too, make my way there.

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